The Breached WallIn just two days, Union rifled guns breached the wall of Fort Pulaski, allowing shells to explode against one of the fort's primary magazines.

The Breached Wall TodayThe U.S. Army later repaired the damage, but the site of the history-changing breach is still evident today.

One of the most significant battles in military history was fought in 1862 for control of Fort Pulaski, a masonry fort that guarded the historic city of Savannah, Georgia.

The battle of Fort Pulaski was one of rifled artillery versus masonry walls and it forever changed the history of coastal defense not just in America, but around the world. Two days of bombardment proved that even the strongest brick forts could not withstand the power of rifled cannon.

Designed to protect the important port of Savannah from foreign attack, Fort Pulaski was considered one of the strongest forts in America when the War Between the States or Civil War broke out in April 1861. General Joseph G. Totten, the U.S. Army's Chief of Engineers, considered Fort Pulaski so strong that he said an attacking force "might as well bombard the Rocky Mountains."

General Robert E. Lee, who in 1862 commanded the defenses of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, was of a similar opinion. Standing on the parapet of the fort with its commander. Colonel Charles H. Olmstead, he looked out at Tybee Island where the Federals were erecting batteries and said, "Colonel, they will make it pretty warm for you here with shells, but they cannot breach your walls at that distance."

Lee and Totten were wrong.

Captain Quincy A. Gillmore, General Thomas W. Sherman's Chief Engineer, was assigned to command the Union troops that had landed on Tybee Island. An outstanding military engineer, Gillmore proposed trying to take the fort by bombarding it from long range with newly developed rifled cannon. General Sherman approved the attempt, even though he did not believe it would prove successful.

Gillmore, however, relished the opportunity that had been given to him. He directed the work of Federal troops as they erected 11 batteries on the northwest shore of Tybee Island.

Aware of the Union efforts, Colonel Olmstead ordered the cannon of Fort Pulaski to open fire on the night of March 22, 1862. The effort to disrupt the work of the Federal soldiers failed, however, and by early April the Tybee Island batteries were ready for action.

The critical moment came on April 10, 1862. A demand was made of Olmstead that he surrender Fort Pulaski, but he replied that he had been ordered to "defend the fort, not surrender it." The Union batteries opened fire.

The heavy mortars that had been emplaced in hopes they might do damage inside the fort quickly proved ineffective. Their shells either exploded high in the air over the fort or buried themselves in the muddy soil of Coxspur Island on which Fort Pulaski stood.

The heavy Columbiads and rifled cannon of the Union batteries, however, proved much more effective.

One shot from a Columbiad (a large smooth-bore cannon) came through an embrasure and dismounted one of the casemate guns of the fort, severely wounding the men of its crew.

The fire of the rifled guns, meanwhile, proved even more successful than Captain Gillmore could have imagined. By the end of the first day's bombardment, Colonel Olstead knew that his situation was desperate.

The rifled cannon firing from Tybee Island blasted a hole four feet deep into the seven and one-half foot thick walls of the southeast angle of Fort Pulaski. The Confederates did what they could to shore up the threatened angle, but they knew that another day of firing likely would breach the walls.

That is exactly what happened. The Union artillery resumed its heavy firing on the second day of the bombardment. By noon, two holes had been opened in the walls of Fort Pulaski and the Federal soldiers and officers on Tybee Island could see through them into the interior of the fort.

The breaches also allowed cannon shot from the Federal batteries to pass through the walls directly into the fort. These shots soon began to impact on the outer walls of one of the fort's primary powder magazines and Olmstead realized that all was lost.

Rather than risk the explosion of a Union shell in his powder magazine, the colonel ordered the white flag raised over Fort Pulaski. The battle was over and masonry fortifications would never be viewed in the same light again.

Fort Pulaski was surrendered to the U.S. Army on April 11, 1862, one day short of the first anniversary of the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina.

The breached angle of Fort Pulaski was repaired by Union soldiers, but the walls of the historic fort still bear the scars of the bombardment that changed history over 150 years ago. Please click here to read more.